The health system is under increasing pressure from a growing and ageing population, and an increase in chronic diseases. A study by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, entitled National E-Health and Information Principal Committee: National E-Health Strategy dated September 2008 on page 9, states that the hospital system in Australia is made up of more than 1,320 public and private hospitals, admitting around 19,000 patients per day, and providing non-admitting services to another 125,000 patients daily. Another study by the Australian Department of Health and Ageing, entitled The State of Our Public Hospitals—June 2010 Report, states that this equates to nearly 5 million admissions annually to public hospitals, and another 3.5 million patients annually to private hospitals.
In a Victoria State Government audit conducted by the Victorian Auditor General, entitled Patient Safety in Public Hospitals dated May 2008, medical error was found to have occurred in 10% of patients admitted to a public hospital in Victoria with an estimated cost of $511 million annually. A study by The Joanna Briggs Institute, entitled Best Practice Information Sheet: Strategies to reduce medication errors with reference to older adults, in vol 9, Issue 4, dated 2005, states that nationally, it is estimated that medication errors alone cost approximately $350 million annually.
Medication errors have various consequences. Some patients experience little or no effect, some have temporary or permanent injury, and in a small percentage of cases, the outcome is fatal. The vast majority of medication errors are avoidable.
In the quest for solutions to these avoidable mistakes with potentially catastrophic outcomes, there has been much research around the world into the causes and effects of medication errors. The causes are multifaceted due in large part to the number of individuals involved in each stage of the medication administration process. Thus, there is no one-dimensional solution.
Traditionally, the process of medication management has been paper-based, such as handwritten notes, prescriptions, record keeping and incident reporting. Unfortunately, the traditional method provides little opportunity for a detailed analysis of medication errors. The traditional method is especially vulnerable to compound errors as handwritten communications are read and re-written in each stage of the medication administration process. Examples of these errors are typographical errors, misreading and the like. In addition, there are further human errors due to fatigue or memory lapses.
Therefore, a need exists to provide a medication management system that provides clear and consistent communications, and allows medical staff to double check medication at each stage of the medication administration process.